Thunder River trip of 9/3-6/87

We camped out at the Monument Point Trailhead on Wednesday, September 2 after it had been raining a lot of the day. Fortunately, the rain stopped before we camped, but it was pretty windy. The gravel road to here from the main North Rim road was beautiful. From the junction of 67 and 422, it took 32 miles and 61 minutes to get to Monument Point using my 1983 Honda Civic Station Wagon. Details:

Mileage and Time from junction of 67 and 422 to Monument Point

Mileage

Time

Location

0

0:00

Junction 67 and 422

19

0:32

Junction 422 and 425

28

0:50

Junction 425 and 232

29

0:52

Junction 425 and 292

32

1:01

Monument Point (Millet)

Gene and Linda went first, and we didn't see them again until the next day!
The rest of us went part way down while waiting for Allen Adler to show
up. This accounts for the first trip partway then back to rim. We had camped out on rim while Allen had stayed in St. George on the way to the GC.

After starting with Allen, we unfortunately tried to take the old ridge trail, but after
encountering a very difficult descent, realized the error of our ways and went back. We hiked down one major barrier, but the next major barrier posed a "10% risk of death" according to Rich and Allen! We decided to drive to the Indian Hollow Trail head, and hoped that the trail would be clearer from there. The Bensons went ahead to the car at one point while Allen was adjusting his pack. After getting back to the trail junction that I thought was the junction of the Indian Hollow and Monument Point Trails, I decided to continue west to explore that direction. Very quickly it was clear that this was the correct trail. Unfortunately, by then the Bensons were at the car, so Allen and I dropped our packs there and hiked back up to the car to get the Bensons and more water.

We ended up camping at the Esplanade when we ran out of daylight, after hiking 14-16 miles that day.

On Friday, we hiked down to Upper Tapeats Campground. I was wiped out when I got there so rested from 1-3 pm. Then walked along the west river trail as far as I could in the time remaining. It rained about 4:30 am on Saturday morning just enough so that Allen and I threw our stuff under a ledge, at which point the rain stopped.

On Saturday, crossed Tapeats Creek twice and made it to the Colorado River. The Trail was somewhat scary at the end - the entire 400' drop occurred at the end of the trail at the river. Before then, the trail was at the top of the intrusive diabase sill, and one misstep and that's it for hiking in the GC. I walked along the river for a while.

We were ready to hike out at about 3 pm after a big lunch, but it rained quite hard and delayed our start. In Surprise Valley, we consciously decided to hike to Dear Creek valley edge and do some moonlight hiking. Hike up to Esplanade was tough. Gene and Linda went beyond the site of our previous camp, so spent some time finding another. Greg was really wiped by that day!

Had an easy hike out on Sunday. Drove to Thunder River Trailhead to check it out. It has a beautiful view of Mt. Sinyala from there.

Recording number

Mileage

Time arrived

Time left

Altitude

Comments

0

0.00

8:42

7100

1

0.55

8:53

8:53

7100

Millet

2

0.75

8:58

7100

Stop - returned to car to wait for Allen

3

2.30

9:44

7100

Back to #2 with Allen

4

2.50

9:50

10:04

7100

Monument Point

5

2.90

10:15

10:24

6850

6

3.35

10:39

6650

Error? Went west to Mon. Point!

7

3.50

10:44

6750

Jct E and W Bill Hall Trail

8

3.85

10:55

11:35

6600

Stuck! How to get down? Cairn leads to drop off. Finally went straight down ridge (turned out to be error)

9

4.50

11:45

12:37

6400

Middle of rock slide - another tough place Decision point: turn back!

10

5.20

6650

Up first bad part

11

5.35

6700

=7, continue on West Trail

12

5.70

6700

Continue on west trail

13

5.95

6700

Continue on west trail

14

6.35

6700

This is it! I explored on ahead and came back, in order to verify this is the trail. Left pack here and got Bensons and more water at car

15

7.00

= 7 (Trail Junction)

16

7.45

Monument Point

17

8.50

2:40

2:52

Car! Starting hike over now!

18

9.50

3:10

Mon. Point

19

10.25

3:31

= 7 (Trail Jct E and W)

20

10.90

3:50

= 14 Back at packs.

21

11.65

4:32

6250

Bottom of rock slide

22

12.00

5:04

6100

Moleskin stop for Greg

23

12.50

5:17

5:25

5800

Jct little drainage

24

13.00

5:37

5650

25

13.70

5:54

6:12

5600

26

14.70

6:37

5500

27

15:05

6:59

5600

28

15.95

7:18

5450

Camp on Esplanade just before tipoff

9/4/87

Recording number

Mileage

Time arrived

Time left

Altitude

Comments

0

0.00

8:00

5300

Start again with 4 of us.

1

2.50

9:04

9:26

4000

redwall descent

2

3.50

9:43

3600

jct deer creek falls

3

4.50

10:07

10:35

3900

summit - edge Surprise Valley

4

5.50

10:59

11:45

3400

Thunder River spring

5

6.70

12:04

12:17

2900

Shade, rest feet, wait for Bensons

6

7.50

12:33

2550

Camp

rested 2-3 hours, then walked around for 3 miles.

9/5/87

Day hike to Colorado River in am.

Recording number

Mileage

Time arrived

Time left

Altitude

Comments

0

0.00

8:30

1

10:10

10:20

Tapeats Rapids. Two river crossings so far - not bad. Trail had 1 4' drop. Pretty scary on ledge on top of diabase sill near river. Elevation drop is all at end of trail.

2

10:40

West along river - got past diabase column in river by trail behind it.

3

11:00

11:10

Tapeats Rapids

4

12:30

Back at camp

Started hike out in pm.

Recording number

Mileage

Time arrived

Time left

Altitude

Comments

0

0.00

3:55

2550

Start Hike out

1

0.50

4:10

3000

Thunder River stop

2

1.05

4:30

~4:35

3400

Check out geology

3

1.20

4:45

5:05

3500

Thunder River spring - fill up with water.
Carrying up 3 l water - 1 l cached on Esplanade. There were rain
pockets on Esplanade.

5

2.85

5:53

3800

Deer Creek junction

6

4.75

6:32

3800

To Deer Creek edge and back, so that we could hike in moonlight later!